Universal Studios

Sunday night we switched hotels and spent Sunday and Monday nights in a Residence Inn where breakfast was provided.  The breakfasts are great!!  These Mickey Mouse waffles were delicious!  I had one both mornings.  It was a better deal with breakfast included cause it is expensive to feed a family of 7!  Monday we spent at Universal Studios!  This time we made it around the whole park.  I liked some things better than Disney and some things worse.  It is a nice park though.  The child trade-off there was awesome.  They had a nice waiting room at the end of the ride at every attraction for the trading off.  A lot of the rooms had games for toddlers and air conditioning and chairs.  It was nice.

Jesikah racing us with the stroller while we walked on the moving walkway.

Just getting there

Butterbeer stand with Harry Potter village in the background.  It really is quite amazing.

Jarem wanted his picture next to the butterbeer stand

A quick pic in Harry Potter World

Castle from another angle

Jarem holding Taegan.  He liked to play with him.  Taegan was amazingly good the whole time for a 2 year old.

Waiting in line for the castle ride

Jarem loved playing with Porter.  He could always get Porter to laugh and smile.

Taegan pushing the stroller around while we waited out on the Dragon's Challenge.

Micah napped off and on during the day in his stroller and didn't cry at all.

Kyle and I waiting out with the kids while the other's went on the Dragon's Challenge.

Ultimate feast at the 3 Broomsticks!  Everyone was looking forward to this!

I love Taegan eating his corn in this one!  He loved it!!!

Everyone LOVED the butterbeer, even Micah!

Lots of cool buildings in Universal

Jarem wanted his picture by this although we decided not to go on this ride.

Not sure who the guy on the end is?  Can you say photo bomber with the backside. :)

Suessland

Got the guy picking up his water bottle by accident.  haha!

Babies in the carriage on the carousel

 I love Alex's attitude now!  A couple of years ago he would have refused to go on the carousel and been so mad if we tried to take a picture, but he is comfortable with himself now and wasn't embarrassed at all about riding a little kid ride.  Since we had a wide age range, we had to alternate going on younger and older rides and the kids were all very good sports.  I personally thought the CaroSeussal was pretty cool with all the Seuss characters.

One fish Two fish Red fish Blue Fish (aka Dumbo copycat)

I like this one cause the girls are up and the boys right below them.

Lorax forest with Truffula trees and stumps

Jesikah giving her sad look as she looks up at the last Truffula tree.

Jarem listening in the whispermaphone

Jarem standing on the "Unless" stump from the Lorax

Fun speech bubbles

Jarem was trying to duck down and pretend he wasn't tall enough for The Hulk rollercoaster before I took the picture.  It didn't matter cause I stayed out with the babies anyway so he just stayed with me.

Jarem really liked the Dinosaur area

A few family pictures at Harry Potter World just before we headed back to the hotel:

The fam outside Hogsmeade

Kyle and Jes outside Hogsmeade

 We had a great day!  The first part of the day was slower moving and hot with more lines, but by about 4 or 5, no one was there and we kept walking on all our favorite rides with no waits and trading off with the babies.  The water rides at Universal soak you, but we did them over and over at the end of the day, and they were SO fun!  It was everyone's favorite part of the day.